


things unknown

by the_jennster



Category: Dr. Carmilla (Musician), The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Amnesia, Angst, Carmilla actually cares about the Mechs, Cyberian Revolution, Dr Carmilla's A+ Parenting, First Regeneration, Gen, Immortality, Jonny doesn't actually remember New Texas, Mechanization, Mechanization causes amnesia, Mother-Son Relationship, POV Carmilla, POV Jonny, Temporary Character Death, They're A Surprise Tool That Will Help Us Later, and considers them her children, but doesn't know how to have healthy relationships, dont mind those, several headcanons of mind slipped in here, there are
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:54:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26840221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_jennster/pseuds/the_jennster
Summary: Amidst the bloody Cyberian revolution, Jonny d'Ville dies for the second time.And for the first time, he realizes what that means.In which Carmilla never explained immortality to Jonny and he learns the truth the hard way.
Relationships: Dr Carmilla & Jonny d'Ville
Comments: 6
Kudos: 45





	things unknown

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [but i will write you songs instead](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26830207) by [alderations](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alderations/pseuds/alderations). 



> First Mechs fiction!!! I have,,, so many thoughts about these fuckers and it will all be integrated into these fics eventually, but first, I bring you,,,, Jonny and Carmilla angst

The smell of revolution on the horizon was a familiar one and Jonny… Well, Jonny revelled in the possibility of gunfire in his near future. He and the doctor had spent what felt like an eternity traveling, leaving behind the desert horizons of New Texas in favor of whatever space had to hold. He had never left his home before, never left the dried-out town he’d been born in, and he looked forward to what this new world would bring. Cyberia was a strange place compared to the backwaters of New Texas. The way he’d grown up, a planet so starkly devoid of technology, compared to the glittering lights and hum of electricity. He had no clue how the artificial voices and holographic screens were meant to change how they lived, but it only seemed to serve to make the explosions more dazzling. 

The crowds thickened and Carmilla grabbed his arm. 

“Now, Jonny dear, be careful tonight. We don't want you... getting hurt.” There was something in her voice that made him wary, but it was a tone she adopted more and more frequently these days, so he brushed it off as he always did. 

The two of them stuck out like sore thumbs, the pale and thin-limbed people of Cyberia looking more akin to walking corpses than Carmilla with her shock of pink hair or him with his tan from the sunburnt planet he hailed from. Regardless, he was certain this new planet would hold many possibilities and little chance for injury. A little revolution never hurt anyone, after all. 

Technology or not, the sound of gunfire remained the same, that comforting  _ brap brap brap _ as bullets rained down from the sky like flaming snowflakes or heavenly fire. He didn’t feel any hit him despite the non-stop shooting from both sides, palace guards and rebels alike. Rebellion truly was a beautiful thing, so filled with anger and supposedly-justified vengeance. It never really mattered which side was  _ right _ —he’d studied enough history on the doctor’s ship to know that both sides suffered and no one ever truly won in the end. 

His heart began to stutter in the cold and his hand leapt to his chest, seeking out the steady beat. When Carmilla had told him that his heart was weak and broken, he’d known it had only been a matter of time until everything he’d done back on New Texas caught up with him, a sick sort of retribution for the blood on his hands. But the doctor,  _ oh _ , she was clever. She’d replaced his old and dying thing with a metal heart that shimmered in the Cyberian snow, glittering beneath his chest in a rainbow display. Yes, it had been one more thing to cover up before leaving the Aurora, but it was all worth it as he could now run and leap without concern, his heart  _ tick tick ticking _ steadily in his chest, almost like a bomb waiting to make itself known.

There were whispers on the streets, amid the rebels he’d decided to call “friends” for the time being, that the tsar and his family were being brutally murdered as he wandered the frozen landscape, hoping to find some chaos to wrought. He crossed the square in front of the palace, hoping to at least see the light of muzzle flashes as the final bullets were shot, but could see nothing except a familiar coat and cane weaving amidst the crowds, heading for the palace with steady intention. He didn’t know much of the Cyberian culture, nor the language, not, frankly, what shitty government had led up to this revolution, but if there was something he  _ did  _ know of, it was the universal experience of those in power often not being fit to have that power. Whatever Carmilla was planning, he knew it would be a particularly spectacular thing, as she had enough flair and dramatics to bring down an entire government with her own two hands. He met her gaze briefly across the square and risked a wave, flashing that devilish smile that had inspired his chosen name. She waved back, shifting her weight on her cane and waiting almost expectantly. With his newfound guardian watching, he turned… and picked up a bomb.

The first building he found seemed to be ready to fall from the get-go, so there would certainly be nothing lost with his explosion. It was almost a pity. There was something to be said for the way grief ripped through a person when they lost something… truly valuable. Regardless, he wanted some good, hearty explosions to light up the freezing night, and this building would do nicely. He knelt at the base of what seemed to be the central support and began to wire up the bomb, but then seven shots rang out and a mix of cheers and screams rose above the gathered crowds. He stood, leaning out of the window to watch the crowds surge into the palace courtyard. Carmilla stood at the fringes, stoic and dark against the snow-white landscape.

And  _ that _ is when the bomb went off.

"No, no, no, no,  _ no!"  _ Carmilla crossed the square as quickly as she could, her body screaming in protest as she reached the demolished building. She'd lost so,  _ so _ many already—her father, her mother, her brother and sister,  _ Loreli _ —she could not lose Jonny too. She'd tried so hard to save him, to keep him with her despite the broken heart beating in his chest, but there had been no way to know if  _ this _ part of it had worked. Her first Mechanism, her first  _ son _ , and she could lose him so soon. There had been others inside the building, she could tell that from the screams that followed and the others digging through the rubble, but she only cared about finding Jonny.  _ She couldn't lose him _ . Not yet, not when he had barely lived the life he deserved to have—it had been, what, maybe fifty years since she had saved him from that shit hole of a planet, from that  _ asshole _ of a father? Not that Jonny knew that, as all of that time had been spent adrift in space, and he somehow had yet to realize that he had yet to fall ill since his heart was replaced.

And then she heard a cough.

And a groan.

And the sound that Jonny made when she woke him up after a long night of drinking and cards.

She found him quickly after that.

His body was frail in her arms, bloodied and crushed and covered in dust and snow. It was a grisly sight, one that she could barely stomach but that made her hunger at the same time—she would have to seek out a meal before they left the planet.

"Jonny," she whispered, holding his head to her chest. "Please come back to me," she begged, listening to his bones stitch themselves back together, his lungs reinflating, his heart beginning to beat once more.

He remembered the weight of the building on top of him, the way the cement caved and crumbled and cracked over his body. He remembered the pounding in his skull, the way his freshly-replaced heart beat its final beats. And then he remember the doctor, cradling him. 

"It worked," she breathed, holding his body close to hers.

"Doc, what— I  _ died _ ."

"It  _ worked _ !" Her body shook with something between a laugh and a cry.

"I was  _ dead _ ." That creeping darkness, the emptiness that filled him—

"I can't believe it  _ worked _ ."

His body seemed to not longer ache with every breath and he pushed away from her.

"What worked?"

"It was just an idea, Odin had said-- I never  _ thought _ that it would work."

" _ What worked? _ " he shouted and Carmilla froze.

"Your Mechanism."

It all clicked into place then.

Waking up with no memory, aboard a starship that felt familiar and strange at the same time, with a woman claiming to have saved his life with a heart  _ mechanism _ . Carmilla had filled in the blanks all-too-eagerly, told him how a cruel man named Jack had blackmailed him into killing his father and  _ she _ , the genius doctor, had saved his life.

But it never been about  _ him _ , had it? It had always been about  _ her _ .  _ Her _ science, her experiment, her  _ fucking _ Mechanisms.

“I’m _done_ ,” he shouted, stumbling away from Carmilla, still kneeling amidst the rubble, amidst his _blood_ — there was so much blood, too much, he shouldn’t have survived, it wasn’t _natural_. “I’m not your plaything,” He picked his way out of the fallen building, the building that should’ve killed him. “I’m not your experiment.” There’s a fallen rebel with a gun by the entrance and a gash along their head, and he leans down and scoops up the weapon. “I’m not your fucking pet.” He spat, turning and swinging his arms wide with all the dramatics he learned from her, meeting her numb gaze across the mess he made. “Find some other fool to corrupt with your so-called fucking _gift_. We’re in the middle of a fucking rebellion, Carmilla, you shouldn’t have to go far to find a dying orphan!”

He stormed off and realized that he was walking to where they’d docked the Aurora.

It wasn’t there.

_ Fuck _ .

He’d have to find it, then.

**Author's Note:**

> I DEFINITELY am planning to write a second chapter and possibly more within this "series" of how and why each Mechanism was Mechanized (we have been given So Much Lore for how Tim was Mechanized lately and I am prepared to make people cry), but for now,,,, enjoy the Implications  
> (Oh and before the next chapter comes out I suggest you read the fiction How The Aurora Was Won because I place that between these chapters and it will make you SAD)


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